The Offering
by Sariniste
Summary: What sacrifice must Gin make to earn Aizen's trust? Starts after the TBTP arc. Dark. AiGin with some Gin x Rangiku. Will follow canon and explore Gin's motivations throughout his life. Gin's POV.
1. Chapter 1

**The Offering**

**Chapter 1  
**

**A/N:** What sacrifice must Gin make to earn Aizen's trust? Takes place not long after the TBTP arc. Posted 11/7/10.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Bleach.

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There was only one piece of furniture in the darkened room, a large desk illuminated only by a reading lamp. The boy's breath caught as he was dragged inside and dumped unceremoniously in front of the desk. The man behind the desk was reading, paying no attention to the trussed-up youth lying on the bare wooden floor in front of him. His tousled brown hair fell over square glasses that glinted in the light. The boy swallowed as his captors left the room in silence, leaving him alone with the man.

The man continued reading silently for several minutes before he closed the book and looked up with a slight smile. The silver-haired boy shivered at the sight of the smile.

"Gin. You were caught spying on one of my operations. What I'd like to know first is why." The man's voice was soft and deceptively gentle.

The boy knew his life depended on what he said next. He himself had witnessed Aizen kill subordinates without a qualm when they displeased him. He knew Aizen cared little for the life of anyone he considered an enemy, an obstacle to his plans, or even merely no longer useful to him. He had only to see the captain's haori the man wore to recall how he had won the coveted position: through the secret torture and attempted assassination of his former captain as well as many other captains and lieutenants. The captains who had discovered the treachery had themselves been framed for Aizen's crimes and sentenced in his place. It was a lesson Aizen's subordinates had taken to heart: if they followed him loyally and obeyed his every command, no matter how arbitrary, they would be rewarded beyond their dreams. If, on the other hand, they failed him in any way, he would ruthlessly make certain they met dishonor, imprisonment, or death.

Not merely a powerful shinigami, Aizen controlled a formidable shadow organization with members throughout the Gotei 13, all operating in service of his clandestine schemes. Gin had chosen to join Aizen's organization and work directly for this man because of what he had witnessed being done to Rangiku. Originally, he had hoped to find out what had happened and return whatever had been taken from her.

He knew the price he would have to pay for this knowledge would be the utter destruction of whatever he had left for a conscience. He was well aware of the nature of the tasks Aizen assigned to those in his employ. He could never tell Rangiku what he had chosen to become, never admit to her it had all been done for her.

But in the handful of years he had been Aizen's agent, he had found out little. The man discouraged inquisitiveness, keeping each of the various "departments" of his organization widely separated.

By presenting himself as an emotionless snake who was willing to kill without hesitation, Gin had become one of Aizen's most valued subordinates, close enough to the man to be trusted with delicate operations and assassinations that had to be carried out in utmost secrecy. But he knew his past loyal service mattered nothing if Aizen deemed him untrustworthy now. Aizen had never been sentimental.

Gin licked his lips and smiled disarmingly at his superior. "Ne, it's what I do, Aizen-taichou. I've always been curious about everything."

Aizen studied the boy's face, observing the slitted eyes and immutable grin. "You know I don't encourage curiosity. It can be dangerous."

"Yes, but I like danger. It's exciting." He writhed slightly in his bonds.

Aizen moved around the desk to stand over the bound figure on the ground. "Is that so?" he asked softly. "You find being tied up at my feet, waiting on my word of life or death… exciting?" He drew a long, thin knife, and in one swift movement had bent down and delicately slit open the boy's clothing down to his waist, leaving a thin line of blood behind on his skin. Then he was standing again, towering over the boy in his voluminous captain's robes. His shadow fell over his captive, and his face was in darkness so Gin could not see his expression.

Gin's breath hissed at the sudden pain. The knife wound stung, but the pain was minor, a mere distraction. And he knew his life depended upon keeping his focus. "I've always wanted to find out everything I can about whatever is going on around me. It's part of being a street kid."

"Even if I don't want you to know?" Aizen's deep voice held just a hint of a threat.

"But I never speak of anything I learn. I would never say anything to anyone, Aizen-taichou." He knew his breathing was harsh, but he tried to keep his tone as deferential as he could. Deference, but not fear. He would not let his fear show on the surface.

But Aizen said, "You are afraid, Gin. Afraid of death."

Gin threw his head back so his smile was once more in the light. Aizen rewarded strength and bravery, not fear. "Not of death at your hands, Aizen-taichou," he said brashly. There were other ways to intrigue the man. He bared his neck and opened his slitted eyes slightly, fixing his eyes on the other man's shadowed face. "It would… please me… if you slit my throat, so that I would die by your stroke and none other," he murmured in a voice as sweet as honey.

In the dimness he sensed rather than saw Aizen's smile. When the man moved again, the boy saw he had removed his glasses. His eyes were dark and mesmerizing. He squatted down once again by the boy and very gently drew the sharp point of his knife across the pale skin of Gin's throat, gliding across his pulse point, just barely breaking the skin. Gin held absolutely still, ignoring the stinging pain.

Aizen reached out with his left hand and his long fingers caressed the boy's neck, stroking the line welling with blood. He lifted his fingertips, now smeared with blood, and brought them to the boy's lips. Gin, his eyes not leaving Aizen's face, slid his long tongue out of his mouth and licked the fingers, caressing them with his tongue, until not a drop of blood was left.

The brown-haired shinigami gazed at him, with, for the first time, something other than cold indifference visible in his eyes. Gin saw dark amusement and a spark of what might have been fascination glitter in those deep brown eyes. Then Aizen stood up and his face was in shadow once more. Without a word, he swept out of the room, leaving Gin alone on the cold floor.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Offering**

**Chapter 2**

**A/N:** I hadn't even thought anyone was still reading this story after six months, but a reviewer recently wrote me and asked me to continue, and inspiration suddenly struck. So… here it is.

Still set in canon Seireitei, sometime shortly after the TBTP arc, so perhaps a hundred years or so before the events in Bleach today.

(Originally posted 6/22/2011; edited 6/26/2011)

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It had been more than a week since Gin had deflected Aizen's wrath over his little spying excursion. The man had left the room and had not said anything more, but shortly afterward two shinigami had entered the room and untied Gin, told him he was free to go. Nothing more had been said, but Gin knew he had dodged the bullet—this time. Aizen would have ordered him killed if he had even so much as suspected that Gin had ulterior motives. Although… it was possible that Aizen could still be suspicious, and was letting him go free hoping he would lead them to others. He knew that Aizen was having him watched carefully. So he had had to curtail his information-gathering activities, and had been very careful to be in all respects an obedient, incurious subordinate.

He desperately wanted to see Rangiku, wanted to talk with her, make sure she was okay. But he forced himself to stay away from her. When he happened upon her during one of the large shinigami training events, he ignored her, turned away with a disinterested smile on his face, even though he could feel the puzzled hurt in her eyes as they bored into him, followed by her resolute sniff and ostentatious turn towards one of the members of her squad.

He sighed as he continued walking along the streets towards the Squad Five compound. Little moments where he had to hurt Rangiku, distance himself from her for her protection, had become more and more frequent lately. How did it all get so complicated? But he couldn't back out now. He was far too deep in Aizen's schemes. He could only go forward, and continue with what he had once set out to do.

He had been out on a routine task for the Division when the hell butterfly had come, summoning him to Aizen's office. He couldn't help feeling a frisson of fear when he heard the message, but he had acknowledged the summons and immediately started on his way.

Now, as he walked, he wondered what was in store for him. Could Aizen still be suspicious? A chill ran through him as he thought of what could happen in Aizen's office. Sometimes it amused the man to kill his underlings with his own reiatsu, slowly, as they sweated with terror and begged for mercy, right in front of his desk. Most members of Aizen's organization had witnessed a few such executions over the years. It was one way he kept them all in line.

Or was Gin truly being called in for a routine mission? He hadn't been sent on an assassination the entire week. Perhaps he was due for another such assignment where he would stab his target with Shinsou, then set off one of Aizen's pre-packaged spells to make it look like a hollow attack. There had been more killings than usual lately as Aizen consolidated his position as one of the top captains in the Gotei 13. The belief in the Seireitei was that there had been an unusual increase in activity among the hollows these past few years. But what they didn't know was that almost all of the deaths from so-called hollow attacks were at Aizen's command. Gin could see that Aizen was systematically eliminating anyone who had ever expressed distrust of him.

It wasn't easy to maintain a façade of sweetness and light while you were simultaneously running an illegal organization and conducting human experiments all over the Seireitei, Gin mused. There were bound to be slips, traitors within the organization, outsiders who suspected, dubious activity uncovered.

Aizen dealt with any such doubts in his typically ruthless manner. The hollows were merely a convenient excuse. There were few shinigami who hadn't lost someone to a hollow attack, with the result that they were universally vilified as evil incarnate. This served Aizen's purposes as well, to have such expedient scapegoats near to hand. In fact, Gin knew, most hollows were pathetic, confused beings, if you didn't count the ones Aizen had experimented on and modified. Gin smirked. You couldn't help but admire the man, he thought. His interlocking plans always dovetailed beautifully.

There was a good reason why no one ever seemed to suspect Aizen, why all the top-level captains all thought of him as a golden boy. Aizen made sure not a breath of mistrust reached the ears of the people in power. Gin sometimes thought privately that it was overkill on his part; the Seireitei elite and the soutaichou certainly seemed to accept some fairly horrible crimes. The fact that they had recently promoted that psychopath Mayuri to captain came to mind. Of course, they had been desperate to fill all the vacant captain slots left after the "Urahara incident" not too long ago. But surely it didn't matter what the Seireitei thought of Aizen. Perhaps Aizen simply craved respect. The man was close-mouthed about his origins, but every now and then Gin thought he detected a trace of the Rukongai in Aizen's mannerisms. The man was highly educated and quite polished, but if he had come from peasant stock, it might explain his penchant for the nobles' approval.

Now if Gin were a captain, he wouldn't care what anyone thought of him. His smirk widened for a moment. He personally thought it would be more fun if everyone was a little afraid of him.

However, Aizen was choosing, for whatever reasons, to play the part of a mild-mannered nerd to the power elite, and it was Gin's job to back him up. If that meant killing anyone who got in the way of Aizen's plans, so be it. The boy shrugged, and then resolutely put his own part in Aizen's crimes aside. He knew that by leading a double life, he was risking the only thing that had ever really mattered to him. If Rangiku ever found out what he was doing for Aizen, she would recoil in horror… and likely never want to speak to him again, he thought ruefully. It was beyond ironic that he was doing it all for her.

He reached the carved wooden door of the Division Five office and knocked. A deep voice from within answered him. "Come in."

The boy walked in the door, his face arranged in his usual smile, his eyes slitted shut. "Ne, Aizen-taichou, you sent for me?" he asked, making sure to keep his voice insouciant. He had a reputation to maintain, after all.

Aizen was alone in the office, sitting at his oversized mahogany desk in his immaculate haori, every inch the sober, dutiful captain. His eyes were mild behind his glasses, his finely chiseled features serious. Gin let his breath out slowly with relief at seeing Aizen alone. It was unlikely that he would kill Gin here without making an example of him in front of other subordinates; Gin had risen too high in the organization for that. "Please close the door, Gin," Aizen said in a quiet voice.

So it was some type of covert business, Gin thought as he pushed the door shut and felt the powerful protective kido spells Aizen kept on his office lock into place. Now nothing they said would be seen or heard outside. As he turned back to face his captain, he sucked in his breath. Aizen had removed his glasses and run a hand through his hair to sweep it back from his face so that only one lock fell between his eyes. The serious look evaporated, to be replaced by a knowing smirk, and his eyes darkened as he half-lidded them. The man only revealed his eyes like this, Gin knew, when he was planning something exceptionally devious. He repressed a shudder. The last time Gin had seen those dark, liquid eyes bare like that, over a dozen powerful shinigami had been killed or transformed into monsters later that night.

But the man began the meeting as though it were routine, with no hint in his voice of what might be about to transpire.

"Do you have anything to report to me, Gin?" Aizen's voice was measured and smooth.

Gin shook his head. "Nothin' new since two days ago, Aizen-taichou. I've been supervisin' the training of the new recruits." He shrugged. "They're all a bit pitiful, but I haven't had ta kill anyone yet."

Aizen studied his face, and once again Gin was glad that he kept his eyes slitted at all times. Rangiku had told him many times she didn't like it, but now that he was working for Aizen, it was even more critical that no one be able to read his face. Minute twitches on a poker face could be read, and eyes, he had heard it said, were the windows to the soul. But a smile, especially a sinister smile, overpowered all instincts for face-reading. Although, who knew what Aizen could see? The man was a bloody genius, in the true sense of the word, far more so than Gin himself, despite what he heard in the envious whispers around him.

"I see," said Aizen in his resonant voice. Then he allowed silence to fall between them again, a trick which often caused nervous subordinates to babble, thus revealing their state of mind to their captain. But Gin remained silent, waiting. He knew how to play Aizen's games.

After a while Aizen matched Gin's smile with one of his own. "So, you've been quite bored lately."

Gin yawned elaborately, scratched his head. "I wouldn't call it bored, exactly, Aizen-taichou. But I'm ready fer my next assignment. A snake can only go so long b'fore it hasta strike again."

Aizen's lips twitched and his eyes seemed to glitter for a moment as he regarded Gin. "So you truly do enjoy your little… extracurricular assignments?"

The boy shrugged indifferently. "It's why I joined ya, Aizen-sama. I wanted ta have a little fun here… an' the Seireitei can be kinda… dull… after the streets of Rukongai." He let his smile widen just a bit. "'Sides, I like a little challenge."

Aizen said softly, "So you like thrills, do you, Gin?" His voice was slow, seductive, rich. "You like games?"

_Careful_, Gin thought to himself._ I'm playing with fire here. _"Depends on the game, Aizen-sama."

The older man tilted his head to one side and casually ran his long fingers across his desk, stroking the polished wood with his fingertips, tracing circles over its smooth surface. "Ah." He slanted a sidelong glance at Gin, his lids heavy. "As it happens, there may be a position opening up soon."

Gin didn't let his smile subside. "A position?" This was not what he expected.

"Yes." Aizen's tongue appeared at the corner of his mouth and ran across his upper lip, slowly.

Gin's gaze followed the tongue, flicked back to Aizen's eyes. They were so dark they were almost black.

"You see," Aizen said after a pause, "my current lieutenant has expressed the desire to… leave the Division."

"Oh?" Gin allowed himself to express surprise. He had little respect for the lieutenant who had filled Aizen's previous position when he had received his brevet promotion to captain. He was a cowed and slavish man who was exceptionally skilled at kido and paperwork, but was not much of a fighter. He had often wondered what would happen if he called him out, killed him. But the man was quite devoted to Aizen, and Gin knew his captain relied on him heavily to help run things when Aizen was off pursuing his… outside activities. Why would he want to leave the Division?

"Yes. It seems that he ran across some…" Aizen idly straightened a stack of papers on his desk. "Some information which might be considered…" He paused as though searching for the right word, then said delicately, "incriminating… of others in the Division."

"Ah?" Gin had wondered whether or not the lieutenant was truly in Aizen's confidence or not. It seemed he hadn't been. He fingered Shinsou. "So ya want me ta call him out?"

"No." Aizen's voice was definite. "I don't wish it to happen openly." He placed a hand on top of the stack of papers. "And I need him for the upcoming Academy jubilee next month. As it happens, I have a certain… hold over him," he said softly, "and can keep him quiet for now. I've told him I'll accept his transfer application if he puts it in after three months." He gave Gin a slow, dark smile. "There's an important mission into hollow territory I'll need him to perform before he leaves. I'm going to inform him of this emergency duty as soon as the jubilee is over."

Gin's smile widened. "I understand, Aizen-taichou." He put his hand on Shinsou. "In two months then."

"Yes." Aizen raised his eyes to Gin, studied him for a moment. "It's important," he said, "that I have a lieutenant I can trust absolutely… someone who is more than a subordinate. Someone," he murmured in his dark, silky voice, "who can be effectively… a partner." He waited a beat. "Do you want the position?"

Gin had, of course, been waiting for this question and had prepared just the right amount of enthusiasm. "Of course! What do I need ta do ta be qualified for it?"

Aizen smiled, but this time it was one of the darkest Gin had seen from him. "Captains choose their lieutenants. There are no qualifications other than what I specify." He lidded his eyes, regarded the child in front of him. "You'll need to start growing up," he said softly, his eyes running over Gin's body.

Gin suppressed a shiver at the dark promise in Aizen's voice. He didn't want to think about the implications of the older shinigami's words and body language. It was clear what the man was asking of him. Gin had been keeping himself young-looking for a reason. He knew that whenever he wanted he could start the process of becoming an adult in appearance, given the odd ways that soul bodies could transform. But he liked having the appearance of a child. Even in the corrupt Seireitei, it had given him a modicum of safety from unwanted advances. Besides, he could get away with much more; no one took him seriously; his small size meant he could sneak around more effectively.

But he knew all too well what happened to anyone who disobeyed the least of Aizen's whims.

And it was what he wanted, after all, wasn't it? He had wanted to get close to Aizen, eventually become trusted, so that he could get close enough to learn what he needed to learn… enough, finally, one day, to strike. He had already crossed so many boundaries in pursuit of his goals. What was one more? Rangiku, after all, need never know.

He let his smile become lascivious. "Of course, Aizen-taichou. It would be…" he purred, "my pleasure."

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**A/N:** Well, it was interesting to come back to this story after so long. This one will continue in the canon universe. Please let me know if you'd like me to keep writing it.


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